Karl Marx's Realist Critique Of Capitalism: Freedom, Alienation, And Socialism

288 Pages·2022·3.715 MB·English

by  Paul Raekstad

MARX, ENGELS, AND MARXISMS
Karl Marx’s
Realist Critique of
Capitalism
Freedom, Alienation, and Socialism
Paul Raekstad
Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
Series Editors
Marcello Musto, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Terrell Carver, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
TheMarxrenaissanceisunderwayonaglobalscale.Whereverthecritique
of capitalism re-emerges, there is an intellectual and political demand for
new, critical engagements with Marxism. The peer-reviewed series Marx,
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tant Editors) publishes monographs, edited volumes, critical editions,
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centuries,labourandsocialmovements,Marxistanalysesofcontemporary
issues, and reception of Marxism in the world.
Paul Raekstad
Karl Marx’s Realist
Critique of Capitalism
Freedom, Alienation, and Socialism
Paul Raekstad
Social and Behavioral Sciences
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ISSN 2524-7123 ISSN 2524-7131 (electronic)
Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
ISBN 978-3-031-06352-7 ISBN 978-3-031-06353-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06353-4
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Acknowledgements
I owe a great thanks to my Ph.D. supervisors Raymond Geuss and
Lorna “LoLo” Finlayson, who were a vital help during the research that
this book is based on. Their abilities and efforts are beyond anything
that anyone can reasonably demand or expect. Many other friends and
colleagues have been kind enough to listen to, read, and comment on
various parts of this work at different stages. For that, I would like to
thank professor Akshath Jitendranath, Al Campbell, Annelien De Dijn,
Ammar Ali Jan, Ben Cross, Dan Swain, David Bates, Enzo Rossi, Erik
Van Ree, Janosch Prinz, Jules Townshend, Mahvish Ahmad, Nicholas
Vrousalis, Mathias Thaler, Nina Rismal, Paul “OP” Giladi, Rachel “The
Malkinator” Malkin, Ragnhild Faller, Ug˘ur Aytaç, and Zoe Baker.
Among those not already mentioned, I also owe a great deal to the
friends who have supported me, you know who you are.
I will always owe a special debt of gratitude to my mother, Evelyn
Melanie Rækstad, without whose incomparable efforts and devotion I
would never have been able to do any of this, and would most likely
not be around at all.
Ihavepresentedtheresearchthat’sgoneinthisbookatvariousconfer-
ences and workshops throughout the last handful of years. I am grateful
to all participants of them for their very helpful feedback, and in partic-
ular Catarina Neves for inviting me to present at the reading group on
“The predistributive politics of a property-owning democracy” and Enzo
Rossi for organising a book workshop at the University of Amsterdam.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A couple of chapters of the book have been previously published. Parts
of Part I have appeared as Raekstad, P. 2018. Human Development and
Alienation in the Thought of Karl Marx. European Journal of Political
Theory 17(3), pp. 300–323. Parts of Part II have appeared as Raekstad,
P.2017.TheDemocraticTheoryoftheEarlyMarx.ArchivfürGeschichte
der Philosophie 99(4), pp. 443–464. In all of these cases, as well as in the
case of the anonymous reviewers of the book manuscript for Palgrave, I
am grateful to anonymous referees and editors for their comments and
insights.
Finally,I’dliketothankTerrellCarverforhisfaithinthebookandfor
all his help and Uma Vinesh at Palgrave for her patience and help with
getting the book published. I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone, for which
I’m sorry.
Naturally, all mistakes remain my own, but realistically if there are any
that are too glaring you’d expect some of these people to have spotted
them.
Abbreviations
Throughoutthisbook,IprovidetworeferencestoquotesfromMarxand
Engels’writings,thefirstinthemostwidelyavailableEnglishtranslationI
canfind,followedbyoneinoneofthetwoeditions ofMarxandEngels’
collected works in German, where possible.
ThecurrenteditionoftheMarx-EngelsGesamtausgabe—Marx,K.and
Engels, F. 1975-. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels Gesamtausgabe. (MEGA ).
2
Berlin: Dietz/ Akademie Verlag—has been cited by volume such that
volume1:2,page234,iscitedasI:2,p.234.Therearesomecaseswhere
I reference texts without quoting, in which case I refer to them only as
e.g. I:2, p. 234.
In a few cases where I’ve been unable to get hold of the German
original in MEGA , I’ve also instead cited from MEGA —Marx, K. and
2 1
Engels, F. 1927–1932, 1935. Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels-Historische-
kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke, Schriften, Briefe. Berlin: Marx-Engels
Verlag—in the same way, but preceded with MEGA , such that e.g.
1
volume I:3, page 206 is cited as MEGA I:3, p.206.
1
The English-language collection of Marx and Engels’ collected
works—Marx,K.andEngels,F.1975–2004.KarlMarx,FrederickEngels:
collectedworks.London:LawrenceandWishart—arecitedbyvolumeand
pagenumber,suchthatvolume6,page192,iscitedasMECW6,p.192.
TheMarxandEngelsselectedworksinEnglish—Marx,K.andEngels,
F.1969.KarlMarxandFrederickEngels:SelectedWorksinThreeVolumes.
Moscow: Progress Publishers—have been abbreviated MESW, followed
vii
viii ABBREVIATIONS
by the volume number, followed by the page number, such that e.g.
volume 1, page 502 will be cited as MESW 1, p. 502–503.
All other citations are given by author, date, and page number.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Part I Human Development and Freedom
2 Human Development 21
3 Freedom 49
Part II Alienation and Democracy
4 The First Theory of Alienation 79
5 Democracy 91
6 From Realisation-Oriented to Agent-CentredPolitical
Theory 103
Part III Alienation: The Unfreedom of Capitalism
7 Alienation and Unfreedom 119
8 The Socialist Alternative 155
9 Radical Theory and Revolutionary Practice 195
10 Towards a New World 213
ix